From falcons to scorpions: the species thriving in London

An extraordinary collection of wildlife has made one of Britain's urban jungles its home - and adapted to city life

- By Isaaq Tomkins

St Paul's cathedral and the Barbican in central London

London is the only place in the UK where you can find scorpions, snakes, turtles, seals, peacocks, falcons all in one city - and not the zoo.

Sam Davenport, the director of nature recovery at the London Wildlife Trust, emphasises the sheer variation in habitats that you find in UK cities, which creates a “mosaic” of wildlife.

“If you walk a mile of a city you’re going to get allotments, gardens, railway lines, bits of ancient woodland.”

Animals also thrive in cities because urban winters are milder than in the countryside. “It’s not uncommon in cities to see queen bumblebees foraging over Christmas,” Davenport said. “We have a microclimate that invertebrates can make use of.”

Species such as otters and herons benefit from waterways that are less likely to freeze, keeping food supplies more stable through the winter.

Many species also adapt their behaviour to urban life, altering where and how they hunt, the habitats they use, or the ways they move through the landscape.